Writing for the Web Requires Small Chunks of Information

With good web content, we attract positive feelings toward not just our website but what it represents. Good content will help you achieve your goal with a particular web page, be it convincing a user to choose your program, donate, or any other goal.

Bad content, on the other hand, will cause a user to become frustrated, not read your page, have negative feelings toward what your page represents, and cause you to fail in your goal.

What is content? In a nutshell, it's the text you include into your page and the organization of your pages. We have the help of a great web design that presents your content and an easy-to-use content management system enabling you to input it, so all there's left to do is to write quality content! How to Write Quality Content

Speak your audience's language

Many higher-education websites speak using internal language they are familiar with and expect the regular person to learn it. This language is called Educationese. Looking at the perspective of future students--graduating high school students--undecided in their major, avoid Educationese and speak in a way that's understandable to them and easy to read. Speak as a direct marketer or journalist instead of as a professor.

This involves:

 writing for an 8th-12th grade audience  being informal, friendly and personal  being brief, clear, compelling and persuasive  using "You" and "Your" instead of "Students will..." or "Applicants must..."  using "We" and "Our" instead of "The department of..."  using active words, not labels

Avoid "frou frou"

Frou frou is a bragging sentence that doesn't prove anything. An easy indicator of whether something's frou frou is asking whether competing or similar units--colleges, departments, labs--can list exactly that same statement on their page. Instead of frou frou, use unique claims with support, especially including numbers. Your general brag statement, if linked to a page with support, would also be fine. Here are some examples:

Bad: Academics: Our programs give you strength in today's workplace. Good: Academics: More than 100 majors and minors.

Bad: Rolls Royce has the highest quality automobiles appreciated by discerning customers. Good: At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise is the electric clock.

Bad: We have many student organizations so that you can extend your interests and causes. Good: With more than 20 active clubs and organizations, there is no shortage of interests and causes covered.

Bad: Our degree will set you on the path for a prosperous career. Good: The average salary of our students is $40,000 upon graduating

Notice the numbers, e.g., "60" instead of "sixty," which helps it pop instead of blend into the sentence.

Remove content

More important than adding to your pages is removing unnecessary content from them. From a recent workshop, an expert said that 75% of most content is garbage, especially in admissions and financial aid pages. So think about what's outdated, irreverent, unnecessary, or should be moved to a different page. Can parts of your long sentence be removed and it still deliver the same message? Simplify!

Make web pages scannable

Web users don't read web pages like you would a book, they scan them for things like:

 headings  links  bulleted/numbered lists (3-8 items, each item < 10 words)

If you find that you can't keep something short and simple, link to a new page with more information.

Non-scannable example, taken from Moby-Dick:

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

Scannable example:

I get to the sea when:  I find myself growing grim about the mouth  It is a damp  I find myself pausing before coffin warehouses  My hypos get such an upper hand of me

Use brevity

 Use short paragraphs with 50 words or less. One-sentence paragraphs are OK.  Write short sentences with 5 to 10 words.  Use headings with 1 to 3 words, before each paragraph if possible.  Define your leading sentence as a wrap-up of what your page is basically about. Don't make the user hunt through the page to figure this out.  Don't repeat things like "The University of Georgia" and "The College of Family and Consumer Sciences" when that is implied or the user probably already knows this. For example, " The ######## major, offered through the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, is designed..."

Remember that web users are impatient. They want their info now, and don't want to hunt through a bunch of text to find it.

Identify your audience's top tasks and make it easy to do them

Undergraduates

1. Find associated programs offered 2. Learn about cost 3. Inquire 4. Apply online 5. Outcomes 6. Directions

Graduates

1. Why should I apply? 2. How should I apply? 3. What will it cost? 4. Financial aid 5. How do I contact faculty? Additional Reading 1. Terry College (http://www.terry.uga.edu). Simply surf around their pages a while, you'll see the pattern very quickly. 2. Writing Right for the Web videos (http://grad.uga.edu/faculty/Recruitment/resource1.html) 3. 10 Tips for Good Web Writing (http://webdesign.about.com/od/writing/a/aa031405.htm). This wraps up the most important points of this style guide. 4. Letting Go of the Words (http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Second- Edition-Technologies/dp/0123859301)